A convergent scheme for a non local Hamilton Jacobi equation modelling dislocation dynamics

We study dislocation dynamics with a level set point of view. The model we present here looks at the zero level set of the solution of a non local Hamilton Jacobi equation, as a dislocation in a plane of a crystal. The front has a normal speed, depending on the solution itself. We prove existence and uniqueness for short time in the set of continuous viscosity solutions. We also present a first order finite difference scheme for the corresponding level set formulation of the model. The scheme is based on monotone numerical Hamiltonian, proposed by Osher and Sethian. The non local character of the problem makes it not monotone. We obtain an explicit convergence rate of the approximate solution to the viscosity solution. We finally provide numerical simulations.This work has been supported by funds from ACI JC 1041 “Mouvements d’interfaces avec termes non-locaux”, from ACI-JC 1025 “Dynamique des dislocations” and from ONERA, Office National d’Etudes et de Recherches. The second author was also supported by the ENPC-Région Ile de France.     

One-sided stability and convergence of the Nessyahu–Tadmor scheme

Non-oscillatory schemes are widely used in numerical approximations of nonlinear conservation laws. The Nessyahu–Tadmor (NT) scheme is an example of a second order scheme that is both robust and simple. In this paper, we prove a new stability property of the NT scheme based on the standard minmod reconstruction in the case of a scalar strictly convex conservation law. This property is similar to the One-sided Lipschitz condition for first order schemes. Using this new stability, we derive the convergence of the NT scheme to the exact entropy solution without imposing any nonhomogeneous limitations on the method. We also derive an error estimate for monotone initial data.     

A high order uniformly convergent alternating direction scheme for time dependent reaction–diffusion singularly perturbed problems

In this work we design and analyze an efficient numerical method to solve two dimensional initial-boundary value reaction–diffusion problems, for which the diffusion parameter can be very small with respect to the reaction term. The method is defined by combining the Peaceman and Rachford alternating direction method to discretize in time, together with a HODIE finite difference scheme constructed on a tailored mesh. We prove that the resulting scheme is ε-uniformly convergent of second order in time and of third order in spatial variables. Some numerical examples illustrate the efficiency of the method and the orders of uniform convergence proved theoretically. We also show that it is easy to avoid the well-known order reduction phenomenon, which is usually produced in the time integration process when the boundary conditions are time dependent. This research has been partially supported by the project MEC/FEDER MTM2004-01905 and the Diputación General de Aragón.     

High-order compact finite difference scheme for option pricing in stochastic volatility models

We derive a new high-order compact finite difference scheme for option pricing in stochastic volatility models. The scheme is fourth order accurate in space and second order accurate in time. Under some restrictions, theoretical results like unconditional stability in the sense of von Neumann are presented. Where the analysis becomes too involved we validate our findings by a numerical study. Numerical experiments for the European option pricing problem are presented. We observe fourth order convergence for non-smooth payoff.     

Convergence of a finite element scheme for the two-dimensional time-dependent Schrödinger equation in a long strip

This paper addresses the finite element method for the two-dimensional time-dependent Schrödinger equation on an infinite strip by using artificial boundary conditions. We first reduce the original problem into an initial-boundary value problem in a bounded domain by introducing a transparent boundary condition, then fully discretize this reduced problem by applying the Crank-Nicolson scheme in time and a bilinear or quadratic finite element approximation in space. This scheme, by a rigorous analysis, has been proved to be unconditionally stable and convergent, and its convergence order has also been obtained. Finally, two numerical examples are given to verify the accuracy of the scheme.     

Maximum norm error estimates of efficient difference schemes for second-order wave equations

The three-level explicit scheme is efficient for numerical approximation of the second-order wave equations. By employing a fourth-order accurate scheme to approximate the solution at first time level, it is shown that the discrete solution is conditionally convergent in the maximum norm with the convergence order of two. Since the asymptotic expansion of the difference solution consists of odd powers of the mesh parameters (time step and spacings), an unusual Richardson extrapolation formula is needed in promoting the second-order solution to fourth-order accuracy. Extensions of our technique to the classical ADI scheme also yield the maximum norm error estimate of the discrete solution and its extrapolation. Numerical experiments are presented to support our theoretical results.     

Numerical analysis for a conservative difference scheme to solve the Schrödinger-Boussinesq equation

In this paper, we present a finite difference scheme for the solution of an initial-boundary value problem of the Schrödinger-Boussinesq equation. The scheme is fully implicit and conserves two invariable quantities of the system. We investigate the existence of the solution for the scheme, give computational process for the numerical solution and prove convergence of iteration method by which a nonlinear algebra system for unknown Vⁿ⁺¹ is solved. On the basis of a priori estimates for a numerical solution, the uniqueness, convergence and stability for the difference solution is discussed. Numerical experiments verify the accuracy of our method.     

Error estimates for a mixed finite element discretization of some degenerate parabolic equations

We consider a numerical scheme for a class of degenerate parabolic equations, including both slow and fast diffusion cases. A particular example in this sense is the Richards equation modeling the flow in porous media. The numerical scheme is based on the mixed finite element method (MFEM) in space, and is of one step implicit in time. The lowest order Raviart–Thomas elements are used. Here we extend the results in Radu et al. (SIAM J Numer Anal 42:1452–1478, 2004), Schneid et al. (Numer Math 98:353–370, 2004) to a more general framework, by allowing for both types of degeneracies. We derive error estimates in terms of the discretization parameters and show the convergence of the scheme. The features of the MFEM, especially of the lowest order Raviart–Thomas elements, are now fully exploited in the proof of the convergence. The paper is concluded by numerical examples.     

Analysis of a symplectic difference scheme for a coupled nonlinear Schrödinger system

In general, proofs of convergence and stability are difficult for symplectic schemes of nonlinear equations. In this paper, a symplectic difference scheme is proposed for an initial-boundary value problem of a coupled nonlinear Schrödinger system. An important lemma and an induction argument are used to prove the unique solvability, convergence and stability of numerical solutions. An iterative algorithm is also proposed for the symplectic scheme and its convergence is proved. Numerical examples show the efficiency of the symplectic scheme and the correction of our numerical analysis.     

Nonlinear scheme with high accuracy for nonlinear coupled parabolic-hyperbolic system

A nonlinear finite difference scheme with high accuracy is studied for a class of two-dimensional nonlinear coupled parabolic-hyperbolic system. Rigorous theoretical analysis is made for the stability and convergence properties of the scheme, which shows it is unconditionally stable and convergent with second order rate for both spatial and temporal variables. In the argument of theoretical results, difficulties arising from the nonlinearity and coupling between parabolic and hyperbolic equations are overcome, by an ingenious use of the method of energy estimation and inductive hypothesis reasoning. The reasoning method here differs from those used for linear implicit schemes, and can be widely applied to the studies of stability and convergence for a variety of nonlinear schemes for nonlinear PDE problems. Numerical tests verify the results of the theoretical analysis. Particularly it is shown that the scheme is more accurate and faster than a previous two-level nonlinear scheme with first order temporal accuracy.     

On the penalty-projection method for the Navier–Stokes equations with the MAC mesh

We deal with the time-dependent Navier–Stokes equations (NSE) with Dirichlet boundary conditions on the whole domain or, on a part of the domain and open boundary conditions on the other part. It is shown numerically that combining the penalty-projection method with spatial discretization by the Marker And Cell scheme (MAC) yields reasonably good results for solving the above-mentioned problem. The scheme which has been introduced combines the backward difference formula of second-order (BDF2, namely Gear’s scheme) for the temporal approximation, the second-order Richardson extrapolation for the nonlinear term, and the penalty-projection to split the velocity and pressure unknowns. Similarly to the results obtained for other projection methods, we estimate the errors for the velocity and pressure in adequate norms via the energy method.     

Error estimate for the upwind finite volume method for the nonlinear scalar conservation law

In this paper we estimate the error of upwind first order finite volume schemes applied to scalar conservation laws. As a first step, we consider standard upwind and flux finite volume scheme discretization of a linear equation with space variable coefficients in conservation form. We prove that, in spite of their lack of consistency, both schemes lead to a first order error estimate. As a final step, we prove a similar estimate for the nonlinear case. Our proofs rely on the notion of geometric corrector, introduced in our previous paper by Bouche et al. (2005) [24] in the context of constant coefficient linear advection equations.     

A priori error estimation for the dual mixed finite element method of the elastodynamic problem in a polygonal domain, II

In this paper we analyze a new dual mixed formulation of the elastodynamic system in polygonal domains by using an implicit scheme for the time discretization. After the analysis of stability of the fully discrete scheme, L^∞ in time, L² in space a priori error estimates for the approximation of the displacement, the strain, the pressure and the rotational are derived. Numerical tests are presented which confirm our theoretical results.     

An efficient nonlinear iteration scheme for nonlinear parabolic-hyperbolic system

A nonlinear iteration method named the Picard-Newton iteration is studied for a two-dimensional nonlinear coupled parabolic-hyperbolic system. It serves as an efficient method to solve a nonlinear discrete scheme with second spatial and temporal accuracy. The nonlinear iteration scheme is constructed with a linearization-discretization approach through discretizing the linearized systems of the original nonlinear partial differential equations. It can be viewed as an improved Picard iteration, and can accelerate convergence over the standard Picard iteration. Moreover, the discretization with second-order accuracy in both spatial and temporal variants is introduced to get the Picard-Newton iteration scheme. By using the energy estimate and inductive hypothesis reasoning, the difficulties arising from the nonlinearity and the coupling of different equation types are overcome. It follows that the rigorous theoretical analysis on the approximation of the solution of the Picard-Newton iteration scheme to the solution of the original continuous problem is obtained, which is different from the traditional error estimate that usually estimates the error between the solution of the nonlinear discrete scheme and the solution of the original problem. Moreover, such approximation is independent of the iteration number. Numerical experiments verify the theoretical result, and show that the Picard-Newton iteration scheme with second-order spatial and temporal accuracy is more accurate and efficient than that of first-order temporal accuracy.     

Finite volume transport schemes

We analyze arbitrary order linear finite volume transport schemes and show asymptotic stability in L ¹ and L ^∞ for odd order schemes in dimension one. It gives sharp fractional order estimates of convergence for BV solutions. It shows odd order finite volume advection schemes are better than even order finite volume schemes. Therefore the Gibbs phenomena is controlled for odd order finite volume schemes. Numerical experiments sustain the theoretical analysis. In particular the oscillations of the Lax–Wendroff scheme for small Courant numbers are correlated with its non stability in L ¹. A scheme of order three is proved to be stable in L ¹ and L ^∞.     

Maximum norm error bound of a linearized difference scheme for a coupled nonlinear Schrödinger equations

In this article, a linearized conservative difference scheme for a coupled nonlinear Schrödinger equations is studied. The discrete energy method and an useful technique are used to analyze the difference scheme. It is shown that the difference solution unconditionally converges to the exact solution with second order in the maximum norm. Numerical experiments are presented to support the theoretical results.     

Stability and accuracy of time-extrapolated ADI-FDTD methods for solving wave equations

Some recent work on the ADI-FDTD method for solving Maxwell's equations in 3-D have brought out the importance of extrapolation methods for the time stepping of wave equations. Such extrapolation methods have previously been used for the solution of ODEs. The present context (of wave equations) brings up two main questions which have not been addressed previously: (1) when will extrapolation in time of an unconditionally stable scheme for a wave equation again feature unconditional stability, and (2) how will the accuracy and computational efficiency depend on how frequently in time the extrapolations are carried out. We analyze these issues here.     

An Engquist-Osher type finite difference scheme with a discontinuous flux function in space

An Engquist-Osher type finite difference scheme is derived for dealing with scalar conservation laws having a flux that is spatially dependent through a possibly discontinuous coefficient. The new monotone difference scheme is based on introducing a new interface numerical flux function, which is called a generalized Engquist-Osher flux. By means of this scheme, the existence and uniqueness of weak solutions to the scalar conservation laws are obtained and the convergence theorem is established. Some numerical examples are presented and the corresponding numerical results are displayed to illustrate the efficiency of the methods.     

A priori error estimation for the dual mixed finite element method of the elastodynamic problem in a polygonal domain, I

In this paper we analyze a new dual mixed formulation of the elastodynamic system in polygonal domains. In this formulation the symmetry of the strain tensor is relaxed by the rotation of the displacement. For the time discretization of this new dual mixed formulation, we use an explicit scheme. After the analysis of stability of the fully discrete scheme, L^∞ in time, L² in space a priori error estimates are derived for the approximation of the displacement, the strain, the pressure and the rotation. Numerical experiments confirm our theoretical predictions.